Ubuntu gets Android apps

Canonical, the main sponsor Ubuntu Linux, is developing an Android execution environment to allow android apps on Linux desktops. There’s still a lot of work to do to get this running smooth, but they do have a proof of concept functioning, as seen above. This could be very nice for those who have linux netbooks.

But the whole reason why Linux is so bad for desktop (and laptop) (and netbook) use (for normal-ish people, or advanced-windows users who are trying to get their feet wet with linux) is because people tell them “oh, just recompile it for your distro–its so easy”
Until its possible to do without having to recompile ___ then there won’t be a large migration.

Oh and they’re not that cryptic. I haven’t compiled all that much, but it’s usually just X is missing. The only confusing part about that is that it doesn’t usually say the actual package name as libX or X-dev. Once you figure that out, you just look for one of those and its apt-get install libX or apt-get install X-dev. pretty simple.

I have no affiliation with Ubuntu, this is just my take on what they’re doing.

Ubuntu is a binary oriented GNU+Linux distro. They will have easy binary installs from menus but will also make the source available to tweakers once they’re satisfied that the quality is usable. It’s a more BSD-ish approach.

The idea is to be able to access all your phone data & apps in the most natural way on your big machine yet still be able to run Gnumeric, Open Office, or whatever heavyweight code you might want. These are the sorts of things that many biz people say keeps them on Windows & OSX.

@ james
Pay attention please. It’s not about creating programs, it’s about installing programs. And the advice given was “Just recompile”. While it’s good that you can, it wouldn’t be good if you have to.

Case in point: Windows and MacOS X. If Linux could replicate the MacOS X app bundles, that’d be marvelous.

Im assuming you’re referring to the battery life on the G1 not being what you think it should be. I own a G1. Let me give you a tip. turn your brightness down. Let me say that again, turn your brightness down. If you spend most of your day in a building, theres no need to have your brightness up past a 1/4 unless you’re outside.

You wouldn’t necessarily have to recompile, something this big someone would create the proper packages for other distros. This is like the “glorious” .app for mac. Linux just takes some time to get used to.

@@@But the whole reason why Linux is so bad for desktop (and laptop) (and netbook) use (for normal-ish people, or advanced-windows users who are trying to get their feet wet with linux) is because people tell them “oh, just recompile it for your distro–its so easy”@@@
Andrew!
Unfortunately that sounds more like a reason why windows has so many malware to suffer from. Click-install-done! Great! Greatest OS!!! Eh?!
What did you click on? Was the product authentic? What ELSE installed? Dunno?
You do get a lot of errors under Win due to their obscure or not-existent permissions system on earlier versions but typical win user do not see them that often because (s)he runs everything as an admin! What a beautiful and advanced solution. I feel their pain, you try to be a non-privileged XP user and tell me how you feel!
Yet you are right somewhere – installation of binaries generate less errors than compiling it from source. That only means someone pre-compiled that binary for you and you are not aware of errors if they existed.
But this easiness would not be my number one concern in this scenario.
Ubuntu has a repository system that supply you with clean and signed binaries pre-compiled for YOUR system. The only one problem that linux suffers nowadays is some software makers do not wish to compile and test their product for linux. It is not the same as something doesn’t work, I hope you understand it.
Vlad.